Posted 2 Feb 2019

NYPD - Twelfth Precinct

Captain Victoria Gates was not happy. When she told Detective Beckett to do whatever it takes, never in her wildest imagination did she think that would include fighting with the FBI. This had to be Castle's fault. What wasn't? If that man wasn't friends with the mayor… The last thing she needed was to not recover the kidnapped daughter of someone so politically connected. When this all went south, she just hoped that her superiors at 1PP knew where the blame should go, so she wouldn't get any.

Jurisdictional fighting was the worst.

"Castle didn't call them, sir. I did," Detective Beckett said.

Great. It was the fault of a detective in her precinct, not the consultant she never wanted. The crazy had fully rubbed off. It probably wasn't a good idea to leave her on this case no matter how good she was. Beckett probably knew Alexis Castle fairly well. After all, the writer and his muse had to have been sleeping together for four years.

Gates took a deep breath, dreading the answer to her question, "Why would you bring in outside consultants?"

"You told me to do whatever it takes."

Yep, that was the answer she didn't want. Gates did not want this coming back on her. Her detective had indicated this craziness started with Gates's idea. "So you thought that meant bringing in two civilians to attack an FBI agent?" She looked over at Agent Harris, the other person in her office. He was a little too pleased with the dressing down she was giving her detective, considering he was the idiot who had been disarmed.

"I believe Carmichael Industries gives us a better chance at recovering Sara El'Masri and Alexis Castle."

"Why, because they are some kind of computer experts? We have Tori. They can help her. She's top notch. They have no business at our crime scenes!"

"That's not their only skill," Beckett said. She knew something else.

"How is kicking FBI agents a useful skill in a kidnapping and murder case?"

"I'm not sure I'm at liberty to say what their other qualifications are. I can say I've worked with them before. Maybe we should just bring Walker in."

Not at liberty to say! This was too much! "Fine, bring him in," she ordered.

Beckett opened the door and to Gates' surprise, the him was a her. She was a very tall blonde, with heels higher than Beckett's. In fact, the woman towered over the rest of them. Her above-the-knee skirt wasn't workplace appropriate, but the clothes were also of the quality that Beckett and Castle normally wore, those that she assumed came from designers, not off-the-rack. This woman did not look like a computer security person. Maybe she was a model.

The captain and Sarah Walker were introduced, and the blonde took a comfortable, unaggressive position across from the desk. At least this Sarah carried herself like someone who respected her authority.

The woman had been standing right outside the door, likely spying on the entire conversation, so no recap was needed. "You disarmed Agent Harris?" She looked fit, but being disarmed by a woman would definitely explain Harris's outrage and wounded ego.

"No, ma'am, that was Chuck," Sarah responded. Gates heard Beckett whisper 'sir', which caused a confused look on Walker's face.

"Chuck must be the computer geek in your firm," Gates said.

"He prefers 'nerd'. Geek implies enthusiasm. Nerd implies skill. Chuck is very skilled…at many things. Also, he did work as a Nerd Herder for ten years. I did warn Agent Harris. My husband can handle himself."

Just great. She was the wife. Another intra-office relationship was the last thing Gates needed right now. Castle and Beckett were bad enough. Did Walker say 'Nerd Herd'? Those guys who worked at the Buy More? Beckett called the Buy More?

Walker was still talking. "The FBI assault team was just lucky he let himself be arrested to begin with."

Harris couldn't keep his mouth shut. "Let himself!? He was surrounded by four armed members of my tact-team."

"We're gonna need more FBI guys," Sarah quipped under her breath. Beckett failed to hold in a snort. Gates didn't miss the Die Hard joke, but it was too late. The respect she thought she had sensed from this consultant was gone.

Gates needed to get this under control. "Where is this Chuck? Why am I not talking to him?"

"He's following a lead," Sarah said.

"And you didn't stop him?" Gates turned to the Agent at the side of her desk.

"She threatened me." Harris pointed towards Walker.

"You were impeding the investigation," Sarah said rather flippantly. "Chuck was following up on a lead that the FBI techs don't have the authority to handle or even the ability, if they were allowed."

"We traced that video feedback through four continents," Harris protested. "It dead ends."

"It's not a dead end. You just have to be on-site."

Harris's eyes widened. "He can't go there. He'll cause an international incident—"

"I'm not happy he's there without backup, but I believe we were discussing doing whatever is necessary. Chuck will find the exact location of the kidnappers. That's necessary."

"He won't be a help from prison," Harris countered.

"He's pursuing a lead to find Ms El'Masri and Ms Castle. I should be with him, instead of hand-holding the FBI, but we have no one else here to do that. Unfortunately we've had hiring problems at Carmichael Industries. The rest of the company's employees are in California or on mission in an undisclosed location."

"If you threaten potential employees, I understand why you can't hire them."

"It's mostly trust issues. You clearly don't trust me. Did Detective Beckett not explain?"

Beckett said, "I wasn't sure what I was allowed to reveal, after how you introduced yourselves at the farmhouse."

"Oh, that explains it. We were reclassified as overt and inactive shortly after you called about the Linchpin problem. Thank you for your discretion, but now it's time to cut through the mess." To the room she said, "Since we got off on the wrong foot and I doubt you'd believe me at this point, Agent Harris would you please call…" Walker pulled out her phone and looked up something. "202-555-8243."

"That's a DC area code," he said with skepticism.

"Just call it. And put it on speaker."

The man was hesitant, so Gates said, "Please, Agent Harris, if it will settle this."

Harris made a show as if dialing the number was a burden. It rang through on the speaker on his phone.

"This is Assistant Director Winston. What can I do for you Agent Harris, and why did you call me after hours when I'm at home?"

The man straightened up suddenly. Gates was impressed. This woman tricked Harris into dialing his boss at home.

Before the agent could stammer a response, Sarah said, "Hello, Director. This is Sarah Walker. Sorry to bother you on your personal line, and I know Agent Harris is not in your reporting chain, but I need your help with a jurisdictional situation."

"Wait? How did you get this number? I just changed my private line after your last call." That didn't sound good. "How did you get the new number already? I haven't even given it to my son after he leaked the last one. You better not have hacked my wife's or my mother's phones."

"Actually, your cell phone provider isn't that secure."

"So that's how you changed the caller ID. Fine. I'm declaring that hacking the phone company and my personal line doesn't count as credit towards your weekly hack against the FBI servers. You hacked them, not us."

"You knew this was Agent Harris's number, so you must have synced your contacts list with the FBI directory. The FBI would have the number."

"That's what you did?"

"Of course not, Director. It just sounds insecure to me. Chuck has something special planned for Thursday."

Gates wondered what they were talking about.

"No, no, no. You're just trying to get me to pull an all-nighter on Wednesday night. I'm going to ground my son from the Playstation… no, that won't work. If he's not distracting your husband with Call of Duty, I'll have more incursions to deal with. Why are you harassing me now anyway? Are you trying to trick me into not using my son as a diversion?"

From the conversation, Gates deduced Chuck played video games with the son of an assistant director at the FBI. She didn't need more problematic political connections.

"Actually, sir, this call has nothing to do with our government contract. I'm actually calling from Agent Harris's actual phone. I'm here with Harris as well as Captain Victoria Gates and Detective Kate Beckett, both of the NYPD."

"Oh, sorry everyone. Carmichael Industries has been a friendly thorn in my side for the last three months for a white-hat hacking challenge. Sarah, I hope you are giving other government agencies as much trouble as you routinely give the FBI."

"We would never think of it, Director. You know you are special to us." Sarah had a little grin.

"You CIA agents always seem to take special pleasure bothering those of us in law enforcement. At least you're ex-CIA now. What can I do for you?"

Gates caught that. She thought the CIA experience explained a little.

"Carmichael Industries was called in to help with the kidnappings of Sara El'Masri and Alexis Castle."

"I heard about that. An authorization request for an international trace passed my desk right before I left for the day. It didn't matter. We don't have the capabilities to go some places, like there. Ah, I get it. El'Masri's deep pockets coaxed you out of retirement."

"Actually we are friends with Detective Beckett and Mr Castle. We crossed paths a while back when we still were in the agency and have consulted on a couple cases since then."

That was news to the captain. She wondered when had Beckett and Castle used CIA resources for a case? Gates needed to go back through the old files.

"Sounds like someone made a serious mistake by also grabbing the El'Masri girl's friend, not knowing they were messing with you. Why are you calling me again? Right, you said there's a jurisdictional issue. Let's get this cleared up. Agent Harris?"

"Yes sir."

"You are lucky to have Carmichael Industries on the case. In my twenty-five years of working cyber-security, Chuck Bartowski is one of the top hackers I've ever had the misfortune of dealing with. I'm just happy he's on our side, so to speak."

"But sir, you don't understand. This Chuck Bartowski has already attacked me once."

"Attacked you? The man is about as easy going as it comes. I let him play Call of Duty with my middle school-aged son. What did you do?"

"He interrupted our raid of a farmhouse that was suspected to have the kidnappers. We arrested him."

"And he let you?"

"He kicked me."

Sarah clarified, "He didn't resist the arrest. The kicking was later, after he escaped, when you pulled a gun on him. He kicked the gun, not you. Chuck doesn't like hurting people. When we met Detective Beckett's team the first time, our partner shot Detective Esposito with a tranquilizer gun when the detective didn't know enough pertinent details and our partner had to cool the situation. I refrained today because my only option was a throwing knife."

"Agent Harris, it sounds like you were lucky. When I said earlier that they were CIA, I didn't explain they weren't desk analysts. They were field agents, and from what I was allowed to hear, a top-flight covert team. You know. The lethal type. Let me settle this. Sarah, you don't want total control of the investigation, do you?"

"Not until we confirm it's off US soil. They we'll have to—"

"Right. You think it might be international because of Mr. El'Masri?"

"For other reasons, which Chuck may be able to confirm with his current mission."

"Too bad it's not Wednesday because this would distract him from us. Ok, I'll let you keep your reasons. Agent Harris, you're still point, but you are ordered to give Carmichael Industries your 100% cooperation. I'd say share all of your information, but I'm sure Chuck has already hacked your data lines. Will that work, Sarah?"

"Yes. Thank you, sir." She didn't say anything about the hacking, which means they probably had.

"Remember this favor before your next prank. Two weeks ago, ordering the hotel room upgrade and champagne room service at my anniversary getaway impressed my wife, but my credit card bill felt the pain."

"I'll pass that along."

"This call has me thinking. If Chuck and you are still working in the field… That's how you did it! You broke into our northern Virginia data center and tapped the network. I'm going to make a call and have them look for dongles and replace every network cable. We'll also put in frequency jammers. Ha! You won't get us this week. Gotta go. Bye."

The phone went dead. Harris glared at the CIA agent. "You must be really proud of yourself with your high level connections."

Sarah shrugged in response.

"Did you really break into an FBI building?" Beckett asked.

"We don't go on many missions anymore, except when contracted to break into a bank or office to test security, so breaking into the FBI was fun for a change."

"Ah, breaking into the FBI for 'fun.' I see. What are you going to do when he finds what you planted?"

"Who said it was just one data center?" she grinned.

"You have contracts to test government security," Gates said, to get clarification. She could better accept a group with strong governmental ties.

"Yes. The NSA was actually secure. We broke in easily, but they noticed and kept a full accounting of everything we did. We hacked them, but they tracked us doing it, which earned top marks. The CIA had a few holes we helped plug. Then the director changed, and the contract was terminated during a project audit, for supposed security reasons. The ironic thing is we can still get in.

She continued, "The FBI Assistant Director of Computer Security Winston keeps insisting he's locked down their network, challenging Chuck to break in. Chuck normally does it right after breakfast on Thursdays. It's nice for us because it's already doubled the payout of the initial contract, using his discretionary funds. Of course they are now delinquent on their fees, pending approval of the appropriation committee in Congress, so Chuck's doing little things like shifting his dinner reservations by ten minutes, which is easy enough to do considering how insecure the FBI's calendar system is."

There was still the matter of this past mission she didn't know about, so Gates asked, "You said you've worked with the NYPD before. And you shot Detective Esposito?"

Beckett explained, "That was when they were when they were working their previous job, sir. Esposito and I wouldn't stand down, so Chuck disassembled the gun I was holding while I was holding it, and their partner shot Esposito. They took non-lethal actions towards fellow law enforcement officers."

"I see. Detective Esposito was special forces and can hold a grudge. I hope this partner isn't going to be showing his face around here."

Sarah said, "Then Marine Colonel Casey is a sniper. One of the best in the world. I know from a difficult shot he once made to save me, a shot few in the world could make. Detective Esposito should take some pride in surviving. Not many do. Casey's contracted out on a mission in Eastern Europe now and is not available right now."

"Still, you should stay clear," Gates insisted.

"Dr. Parrish too," Beckett added.

Sarah smiled. "Yeah, she had a temper that time."

"What was the case?" Gates asked.

"It was with your predecessor, and it's classified. The second case went better. The details of that are classified too, but it was with the Gage murder, when you were here."

"That mess with the Feds," Gates recalled. "That was you? I don't remember you."

Sarah explained, "Beckett called for a quick consult. Chuck solved the case while messing up an omelet at our home. We passed the take down op to our former superior. The third case was your false arrest of Mr Castle a few months ago. We called your tip line about 3XK, but were not routed correctly. When we heard about the transfer, we ensured Mr Castle wouldn't get killed in prison."

"That was you!" Gates herself was called to the carpet for letting what turned out to be an innocent man escape. At the time they thought he was guilty, so it was their job to hold him in custody.

"Technically, it was the outfit that Casey is on assignment with, right now."

"You're awfully cavalier about contracting a prison break," Gates pointed out.

"Chuck easily found the video and computer tampering evidence. Frankly, your DA is cavalier about false arrests and not protecting innocent prisoners who shouldn't be prisoners. The fact that our exculpatory evidence was given to your authorities but ignored should be a red flag."

"Are you accusing the DA of misconduct?"

"Not today. Today, we have two girls to find. But I must say that Chuck and Morgan agree with Castle that 3XK is alive, and I'm inclined to agree."

"Who's Morgan?" Gates asked.

"That's not important, sir," Beckett said, clearly wanting to redirect the conversation. "Let's just say Carmichael Industries has helped find justice on multiple occasions, but is only involved when appropriate."

It was time for Gates to try to stand firm. "I'm not happy about how you were brought in without talking to me first, and I don't understand your agenda. You are on Mr Castle's dime. The NYPD doesn't have the funds."

Sarah shrugged. "Don't worry about it. We typically find alternative revenue streams."

"At least you're a former civil servant, not a former art thief." That mistake with the last consultant had been an embarrassment that the captain was fortunate to hide from her superiors. Just then, something flashed in the ex-spy's eyes. Oh no. That wasn't good. This one wasn't coming back on her. "Detective Beckett, they're solely your responsibility."

The detective nodded.

Sarah tried to placate, "I'm here to help. Just keep me in the loop, and I'll stay out of the way until I'm needed."

"I'm still in charge, then," Harris said, rejoining the discussion. The statement didn't have the desired confidence and sounded a bit like a question.

"Sure." Sarah said, but even Gates didn't believe it. "It's late for you. I'm still on LA time, so I'm going to hit your gym if you don't mind. Beckett?"

"Of course. I'll call you if anything comes up."

"You should all probably get some rest. When Chuck gets a location, things will move quickly," Sarah said as a parting statement. She left without waiting to be dismissed. So much for that initial respect.

Beckett looked to Harris, trying not to laugh. For someone not currently in charge, Sarah's implied orders were clear.

Beckett said, "I'll send Castle home. Sir?"

"Dismissed," Gates answered, and Beckett left. The captain turned to the remaining person in her office, Harris. "I know you're not happy about it, but it sounds like you don't have a choice. Just do what you normally do, and maybe they will help. We still appreciate your help and expertise."

"Right. I need to check in with the team at the farmhouse." The FBI agent left.

What a mess!

Captain Gates hoped Detective Beckett knew what she was doing